The 2017 Greater Geelong local election was held on 27 October 2017 to elect 11 councillors to the City of Greater Geelong in Victoria.
More than 50 candidates contested across the four wards, including 19 in Brownbill.
The election was conducted by post by the Victorian Electoral Commission.
Background The previous Greater Geelong City Council was elected in 2012, while Mayor Darryn Lyons was elected at a 2013 by-election.
The council was sacked by the Andrews Government in May 2016 after allegations of bullying, with administrators installed to manage city and council affairs as well as to remove cultural problems that led to the sacking.
While all other local government areas in Victoria went to the polls in November 2016 as per usual, Geelong did not. Instead, a Citizen's Jury was established to help determine a way forward, including deciding on the structure a future council should take.
Eventually, legislation was introduced and passed the Victorian Parliament to bring forward elections to October 2017 instead of 2020, as was originally planned.
Electoral system For the first time in Geelong, councillors were elected to four multi-member wards: Bellarine (3 councillors) Brownbill (3 councillors) Kardinia (3 councillors) Windermere (2 councillors)
Before this, the council comprised 12 wards that each had a single councillor, as well as a directly-elected mayor. They were as follows:
Austin Beangala Brownbill Buckley Cheetham Corio Coryule Cowie Deakin Kardinia Kildare Windermere
Proportional representation was introduced at the 2017 election, with instant-runoff voting used previously.
Results
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right; margin-bottom:0" ! style="width:10px" colspan=3 | Party ! style="width:70px;"| Votes ! style="width:40px;"| % ! style="width:40px;"| Seats ! style="width:40px;"| Change
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent | style="width:70px;"| | style="width:40px;"| | style="width:40px;"| 5 | style="width:55px;"| 1
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Liberal | style="width:70px;"| | style="width:40px;"| | style="width:40px;"| 4 | style="width:55px;"| 1
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Labor
| 1 | 1
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Greens
| 1
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Animal Justice
| 0
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Socialist Alliance
| 0
| style="text-align:left;" colspan="2"| Independent Nationals
| 0
! colspan="3" rowspan="1" | Formal votes
Bellarine (3 councillors)
9 candidate declared Party CandidateBackground Animal Justice PartyNaomi Adams IndependentStephanie Asher Consultant IndependentAnne Brackley LaborJim Mason GreensStephen McGain IndependentArt Sims Liberal Trent Sullivan President of the Geelong Young Liberals, real estate agent LiberalJohn Van BeverenLawyer and small business owner IndependentStewart Webb
Brownbill (3 councillors) 19 candidates declared, in alphabetical order Party CandidateBackground Independent Mik Aidt Journalist and community radio host Independent George Ballas Community advocate, former Chairman of Pako Festa IndependentNicole Brown Socialist Alliance Sue Bull Activist and unionist Labor Melissa Cadwell Manager at Melbourne HealthVictorian Electoral Commission Labor Ellen Csar Advocate and teaching aid Independent Freya Fidge HR Professional, family history of Councilors and Mayors Animal Justice Party Jennifer Gamble Nurse IndependentTerry GillardCommunity Involvement Socialist Alliance Sarah Hathway Student and activist Animal Justice Party Jacqui Jacka Nurse Liberal Michael King Businessman Liberal Eddy Kontelj Former Councillor Greens Sarah Mansfield General Practitioner IndependentPeter MitchellBusiness Solutions Independent Peter Murrihy Former Councillor NationalsCharles NealTourism boat operator IndependentAlec SandnerFormer City of Greater Bendigo mayor IndependentStephen Simmonds
Kardinia (3 councillors) 9 candidates declared, in alphabetical order. Party CandidateBackground IndependentBruce HarwoodFormer Councillor LaborBrent Lyons-Lee IndependentDarren HauensteinIT professional IndependentDoug MannTeacher IndependentPat Murnane Liberal Ron Nelson Former Councillor, former archivist. Greens Lois Newman Student, president of the Deakin Greens on Campus in Geelong. Animal Justice PartyElliot Taylor Independent Mary Walker Theatre director, former teacher
Windermere (2 councillors) 10 candidates declared, in alphabetical order. Party CandidateBackground Independent Anthony Aitken Independent Tony Ansett Former Councillor Labor Robert Blaszczyk IndependentKen Dickens Owner of Corio Waste Management. IndependentJordan GrossmanEngineer at Ford Motor Company Independent Kylie Grzybek Chief of Staff to transport Accident Commission CEO LaborMoshtagh Heidari IndependentMarina KozulArchitect. GreensGreg Lacey Labor David Withington Public relations consultant
Election timeline
26 September 2017: Candidate nominations close
3 October: Windermere candidates forum at 94.7 The Pulse
10 October: Brownbill candidates forum at 94.7 The Pulse
10–12 October: Ballot packs are mailed out in the days around 10–12 October 2017.
27 October: Postal voting closes
28 October: Election Day
References